A 22-year US military veteran who spent 43 months of active duty in the Middle East, including combat in Iraq and during the first Gulf war, most recently as military adviser to US operation mission in Afghanistan and currently the Republican Party’s US Congressman, Alan West commenting on the US Marines urinating on dead Taliban soldiers, while advocating maximum punishment, told the Marine critics they should ‘shut their mouth, as war is hell’.

Congressman West who retired from the military holding rank of a colonel did not say there shouldn’t be accountability for the actions of the four Marines but castigated the critics and the media for not being equally critical while concealing the incidents that took place in the Iraq-Afghan war theater such as he recalls “I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.”

West also claimed that there was a double standard, citing incidents of other parties disrespecting the bodies of American soldiers.

Congressman Alan West’s sentiments can be attributed to ‘Sri Lanka bashing’ in the international arena jointly by western governments and pro-Tamil Tiger terror groups in the Tamil Diaspora calling for Government of Sri Lanka accountability during the final months of the military battle to defeat the Tiger terror machine that has been reigning for 26 years.

In the words of Republican Congressman Alan West ‘War is Hell’ during that time for Sri Lanka.

And the LTTE brutal killing of unarmed 600 police officers in the eastern part of Sri Lanka within a space of an hour is like what Mr. West says “I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.”

The Florida congressman further noted “Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?”
In his Army career, Col. West has been honored many times, including a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals (one with Valor), and a Valorous Unit Award. He received his valor award as a Captain in Desert Shield/Storm, was the US Army ROTC Instructor of the Year in 1993, and was a Distinguished Honor Graduate III Corps Assault School. He proudly wears the Army Master Parachutist badge, Air Assault badge, Navy/Marine Corps parachutist insignia, Italian parachutist wings, and German proficiency badge (Bronze award).

The defense secretary Leon Panetta has promised a full-scale investigation into the incident that four marines were captured in a video urinating on dead Taliban insurgents somewhere in Afghanistan.

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) excoriated pundits who criticized the Marines who allegedly urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban soldiers, saying, “Shut your mouth, war is hell.”

“The Marines were wrong… As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell,” West, a former Army lieutenant colonel, wrote in an email to the widely read media outlet Weekly Standard.